Heat release parameter

In combustion, heat release parameter (or gas expansion parameter) is a dimensionless parameter which measures the amount of heat released by the combustion process. It is defined as

$\alpha ={\frac {T_{b}-T_{u}}{T_{b}}}$

where

• $T_{b}$ is the burnt gas temperature
• $T_{u}$ is the unburnt mixture temperature.

In typical combustion process, $\alpha \approx 0.7-0.9$. For isobaric combustion, using ideal gas law, the parameter can be expressed in terms of density, i.e.,

$\alpha ={\frac {T_{b}-T_{u}}{T_{b}}}={\frac {\rho _{u}-\rho _{b}}{\rho _{u}}}.$

The ratio of burnt gas to unburnt gas temperature is

${\frac {T_{b}}{T_{u}}}={\frac {\rho _{u}}{\rho _{b}}}={\frac {1}{1-\alpha }}.$

See also

• Zel'dovich number